Africa Digests the West: a Review of Modernism and the Influence of Patrons-Cum Brokers on the Style and Form of Southern Eastern and Central African Art
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ISSN-L: 2223-9553, ISSN: 2223-9944 Part-I: Social Sciences and Humanities Vol. 4 No. 1 January 2013 AFRICA DIGESTS THE WEST: A REVIEW OF MODERNISM AND THE INFLUENCE OF PATRONS-CUM BROKERS ON THE STYLE AND FORM OF SOUTHERN EASTERN AND CENTRAL AFRICAN ART Phibion Kangai 1, Joseph George Mupondi 2 1Department of Teacher Education, University of Zimbabwe, 2Curriculum Studies Department, Great Zimbabwe University, ZIMBABWE. 1 [email protected] , 2 [email protected] ABSTRACT Modern Africa Art did not appear from nowhere towards the end of the colonial era. It was a response to bombardment by foreign cultural forms. African art built itself through “bricolage” Modernism was designed to justify colonialism through the idea of progress, forcing the colonized to reject their past way of life. Vogel (1994) argues that because of Darwin’s theory of evolution and avant-garde ideology which rejected academic formulas of representation, colonialists forced restructuring of existing artistic practice in Africa. They introduced informal trainings and workshops. The workshop patrons-cum brokers did not teach the conventions of art. Philosophically the workshops’ purpose was to release the creative energies within Africans. This assumption was based on the Roseauian ideas integrated culture which is destroyed by the civilization process. Some workshop proponents discussed are Roman Desfosses, of colonial Belgian Congo, Skotness of Polly Street Johannesburg, McEwen National Art Gallery Salisbury and Bloemfield of Tengenenge. The entire workshop contributed to development of black art and the birth of genres like Township art, Zimbabwe stone sculpture and urban art etc. African art has the willingness to adopt new ideas and form; it has also long appreciation of innovation. As a result there is creation of entirely a new art form which hinges greatly on modernism and pre-colonial art. Keywords: Modernism, patrons-cum brokers, Art INTRODUCTION “Informal school implies art workshops of varying scope and duration aimed at producing artists with minimum fuss and exposure” (Aschafferburg, 1998). The distinct characteristics of workshops as already mentioned are that they are informal, irregular and very flexible in terms of preadmission qualifications and teaching methods. They are operated on ad-hoc basis. This is the case with the informal schools in colonial and post-colonial Africa. As already mentioned colonialism forced a restructuring of existing artistic practices, but did not do away with it. The roots of all workshops lie in a number of separate but similar events occurring at different places. One popular example is that of Pierre Romain – Desfosse’s whose workshop Ateleier d’Art de Hngar founded in Elizabethville (now Lubumbashi) in 1950 during Belgian’s last decade in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). He believed that his “Katanga students would be contaminated by exposure to Western art and the uniformising of aesthetics white masters’, Romanian – Desfosse’s sought to imprint on them a new visual sensibility at the crossroads of African creativity and late – colonial modernism”. Kasfir (1999) Romanian Desfosses’ approach is like all the European mentors of the time . He insisted that his students should look at nature for inspiration. The students in nearly all the colonial art workshops were uneducated or low status people in the colonial society. Copyright © 2013 SAVAP International www.journals.savap.org.pk www.savap.org.pk 193 ISSN-L: 2223-9553, ISSN: 2223-9944 Vol. 4 No. 1 January 2013 Academic Research International MODERNISM AND THE BIRTH OF CONTEMPORARY AFRICAN ART African art history encompasses not only the colonial period which coincide with the ‘modern’ period in the west. “Modern art with its imperative of formal evolution and abstract art with the claim that it transcended social forces provided an exemplary array of evolution like developments” (Kasfir, 1999). Therefore the modern came hand in hand with colonialism and is closely associated with the imposition of social and economical transformation based upon colonialist theories of improving the native. Gidden cited in Kasfir (1999) defines “modernity” as a new kind of civilization which swept away all previous social orders”. However, to an African citizen whether artist, businessman or anyone else “modernism/ /modernity” is a mixed bag containing both good things (education, medical care consumer goods) and bad things (culture deterioration, greed, warping of social fibres, corruption and excess power) to undermine traditional values. In a way passing of modernization means passing of mentality of the colonial era. In Western Europe and North America “contemporary” connotes the art of present and recent past while modernism encompasses an ideological break with the academic practice (Kasfir, 1999). Africa was seen as the home from which the specimen of evolution could collect. This notion had an immense influence on French artists like Picasso, Braque and their counterparts. Indeed Africa served as a bridge between two different twentieth century histories. As a result of the Darwin theory of evolution and the Avant – grade ideology, which rejected academic formulas of representation, colonialists forced restructuring of existing artistic practices. However, they did not do away with the practice. The patrons- cum brokers instead introduced informal trainings and workshops for Africans throughout Africa. INFORMAL TRAINING OF AFRICAN ARTIST “Informal school implies art workshops of varying scope and duration aimed at producing artists with minimum fuss and exposure” (Aschafferburg, 1998). The distinct characteristics of workshops as already mentioned are that they are informal, irregular and very flexible in terms of preadmission qualifications and teaching methods. They are operated on ad-hoc basis. This is the case with the informal schools in colonial and post-colonial Africa. As already mentioned colonialism forced a restructuring of existing artistic practices, but did not do away with it. The roots of all workshops lie in a number of separate but similar events occurring at different places. One popular example is that of Pierre Romain – Desfosse’s whose workshop Ateleier d’Art de Hngar founded in Elizabethville (now Lubumbashi) in 1950 during Belgian’s last decade in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). He believed that his “Katanga students would be contaminated by exposure to Western art and the uniformising of aesthetics white masters’, Romanian – Desfosse’s sought to imprint on them a new visual sensibility at the crossroads of African creativity and late – colonial modernism” (Kasfir, 1999;50). Romanian Desfosses’ approach is like all the European mentors of the time . He insisted that his students should look at nature for inspiration. The students in nearly all the colonial art workshops were uneducated or low status people in the colonial society. PURPOSE OF THE WORKSHOPS AND UNDERPINNING PHILOSOPHIES The purpose of the workshops was on practical level to provide would be participants with skills that would enable them to be practioners. However, philosophically “the workshop’s purpose was to release the creative energies which were thought to lie deep within these individuals. This belief has its historical and intellectual origins in Rosseauian ideas of integrated culture which is destroyed by the civilization process …” (Kasfir, 1999). The state of nature and traditional society are idealized as pure sources of artistic inspiration. www.journals.savap.org.pk Copyright © 2013 SAVAP International 194 www.savap.org.pk ISSN-L: 2223-9553, ISSN: 2223-9944 Part-I: Social Sciences and Humanities Vol. 4 No. 1 January 2013 ISSUES OF PRIMITIVITY In 1957 Frank McEwen the founder of the National Gallery in Salisbury (now Harare) suggested something by way of a metaphor “ … one of the strongest inexplicable feature occurs in the early stages of development through which many of artists pass, they appear to reflect conceptually and even symbolically but not stylistically, the art of ancient civilization mainly Columbian. We refer to it as their Mexican period …” (McEwen, 1970). Whether one calls it “nilotic equiette or a Mexican period the pliable seem to be something Carl Jung might have called “archetypical images”. Both Romanian Desfosse’s in Congo and Frank McEwen in Rhodesia embraced the Jungian notion of collective unconscious in which artists retained deeply ingrained archetypical ideas and forms imprinted as cultural memories. Romanian Desfosses in his ‘nilotic etiquete’ was thinking of a very ancient datum like lost web completely forgotten but still alive well buried in unconscious. Mudimbe (1994) argues that the concept of a primitive ‘Nilotic’ or other complex is very questionable. He further points out that the Congolese artists like Bella, Kalela, Mwenze, Kibwanga and Pili Pili who were students of Romain Desfosses invented an ‘original’ texture and the artistic necessitated by the fact they were situated at the intersection of local traditions and the artistic and the artistic modernity of Romain Desfosses. On one side was the luminous inescapable influence of village life, on the other not so neutral gaze and speech of their teacher. Romain Desfosses played the fatherly role (he called his students my children) and attended to both their physical and emotional well-being. Desfosses saw himself as a Master and his mission as teaching the young Congolese how to ‘see’ guide them in a new discipline –painting. (Mudimbe, 1994). He did